1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit capable of implementing a reconfigurable logic circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, studies to implement new devices using the properties of electrons serving as charges and spins are being made extensively. One of such devices is a spin transistor. As a characteristic feature, it controls output characteristics based on the resistance value of a magnetic tunnel junction formed between the source terminal and the drain terminal (e.g., S. Sugahara and M. Tanaka, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 2307 (2004)).
It is possible to implement a reconfigurable logic circuit using the spin transistor (e.g., T. Matsuno, S. Sugahara, and M. Tanaka, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 43, 6032 (2004)).
A reconfigurable logic circuit using a spin transistor can nonvolatilely store data, unlike an SRAM (Static Random Access Memory). Hence, once programmed, it requires no reprogramming at the restart.
A spin transistor can perform high-speed rewrite and is therefore suitable for a reconfigurable logic circuit.
However, the conventional reconfigurable logic circuit using a spin transistor generates a large through current in a normal operation mode. This increases the power consumption of the logic circuit.